★Tomorrow is Seijin No Hi ～ Japan's Explosion of Pretty

Tomorrow is Japan's Coming of Age Day (成人の日 - Seijin No Hi) and one of the best people-watching days in the world, in my opinion. Charge your cameras tonight and try to be in a big city tomorrow starting at around noon. It's a national holiday, so most people have the day off. The Coming of Age Day is held on the second Monday of January every year. It celebrates all the people who turned 20 (In Japan, 20 years old is the beginning of adulthood) the past year. On the Coming of Age day, all the fresh 20 year olds meet at a prefectural office or hall for a speech by a city leader and a bunch of other traditions (The meeting is called the Seijin Shiki 成人式)This Sejin Shiki part, according to my Japanese friends, is equivalent to having to sit through the speeches at high school graduation before the fun part where you get to throw your caps in the air and take a bunch of pictures. Nobody likes the Seijin Shiki part as much as they like the part where you get to see what all your friends are wearing, take ten million photographs and then go out and _______ (party with your friends all night / go to Disneyland / go to a sponsored event / eat a tremendously expensive meal with your family).Girls look absolutely beautiful on this day, so if you want to see an explosion of pretty, take a walk tomorrow. Girls wear a special kimono called a Furisode and since it's really elaborate and hard to put on, they usually go to a salon to get their hair, makeup and clothes done all at once. As you can see, animal rights activists aren't excited about this holiday because of the amount of real fur that everyone is wearing. Japan just isn't as conscious as the West is about fur farming and the skinning of animals. Fur is gross. Fake fur can look really real these days.I think I'll love ★ギャル★ forever.　The dark tans, the nails, the attitude...Guys usually wear suits to Seijin No Hi these days, which I think is such a total shame because Hakama looks really handsome. Luckily, two types of guys have started wearing Hakama in the past few years. I hope it gains popularity. Hakama looks totally regal and makes men more handsome just like a kimono makes a pretty Japanese girl prettier. Oddly enough, the two types of guys who wear Hakama are the very traditional ones (the ones in elite universities or very small towns, the one with strict parents) and the exhibitionistic guys (the gyaruos, the show-offs, the peacock types). They are the absolute opposite sides of the spectrum but I'm glad they wear it..Here are some photos for Jared in Nakano, who is a genius at finding and capturing divine examples of male vanity in Tokyo. Check his website in a few days and I'm sure he'll have some great picture on his website. Actually, go there now and see the pictures he took of Japanese policemen.I love Seijin No Hi, and not just because it means I have a day off tomorrow.